The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College Presents Another Life

September 10 at 8pm & September 11 at 1:30pm

The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College presents Another Life, a new play by Karen Malpede, starring George Bartenieff and Eunice Wong, as part ofThe 9/11 Performance Project. On Thursday, September 8 at 7:30pm, there will be an Open Invited Dress Rehearsal of Another Life following The Guantanamo Lawyers’ Panel at 5 pm in the theater’s lobby. Performances of Another Lifeare Saturday, September 10 at 8pm and Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 1:30pm. Pulitzer-prize winningauthor Chris Hedges will present a JUST-US Dialogue with the audience after the Sunday matinee, followed by a reception with the artists.   The Gerald W. Lynch Theater is located at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $20 ($10 students) and are available at www.ticketcentral.com or by phone at 212-279-4200.

 

A surreal, real, and satiric story of a mogul and his daughter locked in a titanic struggle, Another Life offers a whirl-wind trip through the past ten years.  Greed, torture, war-lust and sexual enslavement vie with a subtle but growing resistance that leads to brave acts of caring and whistle-blowing. Another Lifee mploys inventive language and memorable characters to bring to light questions of complicity and conscience in civil society.

 

Another Life, written and directed by Karen Malpede (National Maknight Playwrights Fellow, NYFA Playwriting Award), stars George Bartenieff (4 time Obie Award winner, Drama Desk Award) and Eunice Wong (Helen Hayes Award), Ariel Shafir (Barrymore Award), Omar Koury (Drama Desk Award nominee), Christen Clifford, and Dorien Makhloghi and is co-produced with Theater Three Collaborative. Another Life was recipient of an On the Road Travel grant from Theater Communications Group and received a week-long workshop as part of the New Plays and Theater Forms Festival in June at the National Theater of Kosovo. Another Lifewas excerpted in The Kenyon Review, fall 2010, called “stinging and satirical.”

 

Malpede is author of sixteen produced plays and is lead editor of Acts of War: Iraq & Afghanistan in Seven Plays (Northwestern, 2011). She is co-founder with George Bartenieff of Theater Three Collaborative, which last season produced a sold-out run of her play Prophecy starring Kathleen Chalfant, at the Fourth St. Theater, in association with New York Theatre Workshop. Bartenieff’s career spans 60 years in theater, film and television. He was last seen on Broadway in The Merchant of Venice; he is featured in episode 8 of the new season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and will be featured in the up-coming new film with Sasha Cohen. Eunice Wong is best known for her Helen Hayes award-winning leading role in The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow. She was nominated for a Barrymore Award for her performance in An Infinate Ache. In New York, she has been seen at the Atlantic Theater and Classic Stage Co. She is a graduate of the Julliard School.

 

The Guantanamo Lawyers’ Panel features some of the major human rights lawyers in the nation, who have handled major habeas corpus and high profile Guantanamo defense cases: Alexander Abdo (National Security Project, ACLU) Jonathan Hafetz (Seton Hall, author Habeas Corpus after 9/11), Gitanjali Gutierriez (Center for Constitutional Rights, lawyer for Mohammad Al-Qhatani), and Martha Rayner (Fordham Law School, has defended seven Guantanamo detainees). The panel will be chaired by Kathleen Chalfant, actress, and Theater Three Collaborative associate artist.

 

For more information, visit www.theaterthreecollaborative.org.

 

Confounding the clichés, the 9/11 Performance Project presents a counter-narrative of the past ten years with an acclaimed revival and two world premieres: The Domestic Crusaders written by Wajahat Ali, Another Life written by Karen Malpede, and Demolition of the Eiffel Tower written by Jeton Neziraj. Also part of the project is We Were Kids: 9/11 Stories, a play collectively written by thirteen John Jay students in Karen Malpede’s Theater & Justice summer school class in the Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at John Jay where she is an adjunct professor of theater, and another student-acted play, What Happened, by Professor Amy Green. Malpede will speak on the culture panel at the day-long conference, “9-11 After Ten Years: Cultural, Personal and Historical Perspectives” at 11am, Friday, September 9, in Haaran Hall, Rm 603, John Jay College, sponsored by the Center on Terrorism.

 

The 9/11 Performance Project is co-Produced with Professor Seth Baumrin, Chair of the Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at John Jay College. The Project is supported, in part, by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.

 

Beginning in 2008, the Theater created what has become its signature series, ART OF JUSTICE, which focuses on how the artistic imagination can shed light on the many perceptions of justice in society. ART OF JUSTICE focuses on advocacy for marginalized communities through music, drama, dance and fine art. JUST-US Dialogues, a supplemental series, will be formally introduced this fall. Through intimate discussions, lectures and post-show dialogues with artists and experts, audiences will gain legible context and have the opportunity to exchange critical thinking and share perspectives. Provocative and engaging performances that explore topics ranging from the post 9/11 political and cultural environment in the United States and abroad, immigration and race, religious freedoms and separation of church and state are included in this season’s ART OF JUSTICE series.

 

Since opening its doors in 1988, the Gerald W. Lynch Theater has been an invaluable cultural resource for John Jay College and the larger New York City community. Its signature series, The Art of Justice, is the only performance series in New York that presents a diverse exploration of the role performing arts have played in the pursuit of social, transitional and criminal justice. The Theater has collaborated with such noted companies as Epic Theatre Ensemble, Gotham Chamber Opera, and has also hosted prestigious events for Lincoln Center Festival, Great Performances, Juilliard, Alvin Ailey and numerous television specials for HBO and Comedy Central.

 

About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College approaches justice as an applied art and science in service to society and as an ongoing conversation about fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.

 

For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu/theater.php.